I am a Liberal, and I am a Democrat.
I am a Liberal because I believe that there is a role for government in the lives of the people governed. How could it be otherwise?
Without government we are reduced to families and tribes and there is virtually no way to resolve conflict without resorting to violence. That our nation, as diverse and opinionated as we are as a people can be, for the most part live together without killing each other in large numbers on a regular basis is a testament to the need, to the requirement for government.
But recognizing that a nation needs laws and some kind of enforcement of laws does not make one a Liberal.
For me (your mileage is probably going to vary) what makes for good government, for liberal government is the balancing of power.
As a Liberal I am absolutely apposed to the idea that might makes right. I believe that when any minority is truly oppressed or discriminated against that it diminishes us as a nation, as a people.
To me the purpose of government is to be big enough to prevent the powerful from doing whatever they like. That is true for large companies who dump toxic waste or make unsafe products, that is true for religious groups who would insist on their morality for all, and that is true even for those who are bigger and stronger who prey the weaker members of our society.
The purpose of government is to work to achieve balance for all citizens, so that those with power can not constantly and forever use it to maintain their advantages. This is an ideal that we do not always live up to in practice, but we do make inroads towards that ideal often enough to show that it is possible and we must keep up the fight, as hard as it is from time to time.
The things that we see as inherently American are all products of this Liberal ideal. The abolition of slavery, the vote for women, Social Security and all the social safety net programs, the Civil Rights laws, a start on health care being a right and not a privilege, and slowly but surely full equality for our brothers and sisters, citizens all, who happen to be gay.
All of these are products of Liberal thinking about what the United States should be. They, and many others, are the products of the other liberal idea, that we are not just isolated citizens, but members of nation and as such we are all in this together and do, in fact, owe each other something.
I believe in these things passionately. This is why I am proud and always have been to say that I am a Liberal.
I am, also, a Democrat. In fact it is because I am a Liberal that I am a Democrat. The Democratic Party is hardly prefect (what large, long term organization can actually claim that mantel?) however, it is the place where most of the Liberal gains have originated and been enacted.
Democrats run the spectrum; there are very conservative Democrats, just as there are very liberal ones, like myself. But as a whole this party, our party, has been that force for balance, that place where the idea of our collective responsibility to each other as Americans has had it greatest expression.
It is now the only place where there is any chance of advancing liberal ideas and policy. For all that there are small third parties out there who might be more completely liberal and more aggressively committed to liberal ideals they are not a force in the political life of our nation.
So knowing that it is an imperfect tool, I still choose the Democratic Party as the place where I make my stand for the ideals I hold most dear. It is the single place where there is a chance to fight back against the power of money and reactionary social policy that the modern Republican Party has become.
It was a new and amazing idea, that the governed should have full control over who governs them when this nation was founded 236 years ago, and since that time we have moved, mostly, closer to fully achieving that.
We are in a time when much of the most recent gains in that regard are under attack. For anyone who believes in balancing power and a collective responsibility to our fellow citizens there is a hard fight ahead, but it has never been easy to expand equality and maintain it.
For me I stand with my ideals and stand proud on them.
So I say it proudly, my name is Bill Egnor and I am a Liberal and I am a Democrat.
The floor is yours.